The comparison between the effectiveness of two methods, Gillingham-Orton and Practice-Repetition, on improvement of elementary students with dysgraphia

The purpose of this study was to comparison effectiveness of Orton-Gillingham and Practice-Repetition methods on reading performance of dysgraphia in third elementary school students. This research was experimental with control group and randomized assignment with pre-test and post-test. Statistical population included dysgraphic children who had referred to counseling and psychological services of Kermanshah. The sampling method was through random sampling; so from among who referred to this clinic, 45 children (26 male, 15 female) were selected as final sample and were randomly separated into two experimental and control groups (15 students to Gillingham method, 15 students to Practice-Repetition method and 15 student to control group). The assessment tools included Wechsler's Intelligence scale for Children (WISC-R), Spelling Test, clinic Questionnaire, WMS-III and Bender-Gestalt test. The dysgraphic children of experimental groups took 8 sessions (60 minutes) intervention. The results of covariance analysis and Tukey test showed that Orton-Gillingham multisensory approach improves the performance of dysgraphic students than the control group and Practice-Repetition group and this method improves spelling variations accounted for 66% of the stems. Results showed using Orton-Gillingham method has a significant effect on improving spelling problems and could be a good alternative for practice and repetition in working with students with dysgraphia.